Economic burden of measles and its influencing factors in Fujian, China

Junlei Chen; Haimei Jia; Zhikun Cai; Yong Zhou; Shanshan Ma; Yahong Chen; Changfu Chen; Weiyi Pan

doi:10.1080/21645515.2021.1989917

Economic burden of measles and its influencing factors in Fujian, China

Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2021 Dec 2;17(12):5367-5371. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2021.1989917. Epub 2021 Oct 29.

Authors

Junlei Chen¹, Haimei Jia², Zhikun Cai¹, Yong Zhou¹, Shanshan Ma³, Yahong Chen⁴, Changfu Chen⁵, Weiyi Pan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Immunization Program, Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Fuzhou, China.
² Department of Immunization Program, Fuzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Fuzhou, China.
³ Department of Immunization Program, Xiamen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xiamen, China.
⁴ Department of Immunization Program, Quanzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Quanzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Immunization Program, City Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningde, China.

Abstract

Background: Measles is a highly-contagious, serious diseases that can lead to potentially fatal illness, disability and death . We conducted an investigation to calculate the economic burden of measles cases from 2018 to 2019 and to analyze factors that influenced the total costs of measles cases in Fujian Province, China.

Methods: We investigated confirmed cases of measles by telephone interview, from 2018 to 2019, including demographic characteristics, therapeutic measures, self-treatment and nutritional supplement expenditure, transportation fees, and lost wages. Medical expenses in the hospitals were obtained from the hospital service charge system.

Results: A total of 131 measles cases were investigated, the average direct cost, indirect cost, and total cost were $518, $284, and $802, respectively. The total cost was 15.5% of Annual Per Capita Disposable Income of Households ($5 162) in Fujian. Hospitalization (OR = 98.6, 95%CI: 21.1 ~ 460.6) and complication (OR = 8.7, 95%CI: 1.3 ~ 58.0) significantly influenced the total cost according to binary logistic regression, and an outbreak of measles may pose a significant threat to household finances in a short term.

Conclusions: The economic burden of measles was high when compared with Annual Per Capita Disposable Income of Households. The resurgence of measles and measles outbreaks increased economic burden of household finances.

Keywords: Economic burden; Fujian province; cost influencing factors; measles; vaccine-preventable disease.

MeSH terms

China / epidemiology
Cost of Illness*
Financial Stress
Health Expenditures
Humans
Measles* / epidemiology

Grants and funding

This publication was made possible with support from the Vaccine and Immunization Talent Project of Chinese Preventive Medical Association (CPMAQT_YM0218), the Fujian Provincial Science and Technology project (2015Y0049). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.